Chapter 59

     Our direct sales organization grew steadily, but I wanted to grow faster and be able to reach out to other geographical areas with a concerted focused effort.  We came up with a plan to find a person with the talent to grow a group of their own in the Kansas City area. 

     We were going to try to sponsor someone with a guaranteed base income that would help support them while they grew their group. When they started to grow, we would pay them the difference between their startup check and the guaranteed base income.

     Starting with placing an ad in the Kansas City Star newspaper and interviewing interested persons, I headed up the effort and interviewed several respondents, but did not find anyone interested enough that had the right talent willing to accept our offer.  Finally, a gentleman from Lawrence, Kansas answered our ad, he was a fairly new Russian immigrant.  English was his second language and with his thick accent, it made him a bit hard to understand at times, but he was very interested and very much an energetic qualified person.

     I was sitting in front of him trying to decide if we should hire him when I paused to pray about it.  I asked Holy Spirit if I should hire him and the instant response was, “Absolutely”.  

     I was excited by the almost audible response but then asked, “Will he be successful?” 

     The response shocked me, “Absolutely not.”

     I asked again if I should hire him and got the same response.  And again, as to whether he would be successful and got that same response.  It sounded like a contradictory answer.

     My reasoning had me thinking I should hire him as that seemed to be the recommendation.  I also had experience following the Lord into situations when I knew I lacked full understanding and that seemed dubious to me but ended up working out quite well, for the Lord’s purposes not necessarily just mine.  So, I hired him.

     He started out doing really well for the first couple of months and kept growing steadily.  During the three-hour break we had between appointments, we stopped at McDonalds off Metcalf and Highway 435.  He had a friend of his over from Russia with us that day, and after getting our order, sitting down, they asked me to tell them about Christianity, explaining that they were Russian Jews and didn’t really know much about it. 

     I informed them I had a Bible in my car, and it would help if I could go get it to use to explain.  I did, and we spent the next couple of hours going from Genesis to Revelations from the Christian point of view.  They asked lots of questions and were very patient with my teaching and clumsiness in dealing with our language barrier.

     Near the end of our time together, they both expressed interest in becoming Christians.  I informed them that they could become Christians right there or we could find a church to go to.  They were used to very traditional Jewish services and wanted to go to a church.

     I invited them to attend church with me the next day.  I called around and got two recommendations of churches.  One, an Assembly of God Church, Evangel Temple in southern Kansas City, Missouri, and the other a Vineyard Church in Grandview, Missouri.

     I chose to take them to the Assemblies Church as I knew more about their doctrine.  I called the church and talked with the pastor and found out they had an alter call each Sunday.  I briefed him on the circumstances and let him know we would be attending their church the very next day.

     The three of us met the next day in time to attend Sunday School.   They were teaching out of Hebrews which was spot on to meet their need.  Then we attended the main church service where the alter call was made.  They shot forward and the choir director, dressed in his robe, came over to help us.  They gave their hearts to the Lord and he in turn blessed them fully.

     They left so excited that, within a few days, they had told their families.  Quite a few of them became believers right away and many more later on.  It was truly amazing.

     The man who we hired and gave his heart to the Lord told me about how a friend of his had been sharing the Lord with him on occasions, and that afternoon he had been prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray for him.  He even called his prayer chain requesting an urgent prayer for his friend.  It turned out, he had done this at the exact time we were talking at McDonalds.

     However, one of my partners reneged on the base payment which killed our business deal, but many eternal blessings were gained instead.

     Our group in Springfield was developing leadership and Lori and I decided to move to Osage, Iowa where her parents lived to grow a group there.  Her dad told us he really wanted to get involved and even told us he had signed up.

     We stayed in a hotel in Clear Lake while we looked for a more permanent residence.  I found an older four-bedroom two story house for sale for only $15,000.  Lori loved it and we decided to buy it.  We informed her parents of our intent.  They jumped in to buy it for us and we would make the payments to them as they could get a really good rate at their local bank.

     We moved in and everyone was just so excited.  After we got settled, we met with Gary about our business only to find out that he had not told anyone about our business, had no intentions of doing so, and forbade us from doing so either.

     He then informed us the payment on the house would be twice what we agreed upon and it would be rent, not a payment. He then started remodeling the house with demolition on our bathroom.  Creating a total mess while we were trying to live there.  Then to top it off, he advised Lori to get rid of me as he could raise our kids better than I could.  Needless to say, Lori was just crushed.

     All she could say was, “Get me out of here.”

     A friend of ours had a son the same age as Katie.  She suggested several times that maybe her son and our daughter Katie might grow up and get married someday.  She had done this several times, which I had summarily dismissed as I didn’t want to put anything like that on my daughter at such a young age. 

     Then she said it again so, I decided I should pray about it.  I did so and the Holy Spirit responded, “they will get married on the same day but not to each other.”

     Years later Katie was getting married, and I was planning to make their wedding cake when I got a call from this friend.  She informed me her son was getting married and wondered if I would be interested in making their wedding cake.  I agreed to do so and asked her when the wedding was.  It turned out, her son and our daughter Katie were scheduled to get married on the same day, just not to each other.  I happily made both wedding cakes!

     God is so interesting…